Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

with them." But they had kept themselves a distinct race, having
nothing in common with the Egyptians in customs or religion, and
their increasing numbers now fueled the fears of the king and his
people.
Many of them were able and skilled workmen, and they greatly
added to the wealth of the nation. The king needed such workers in
erecting his magnificent palaces and temples. So he ranked them
with Egyptians who had sold themselves and their possessions to the
kingdom. Soon taskmasters were set over them, and their slavery
became complete. "The Egyptians made the children of Israel serve
with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage--in
mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field." "But the
more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew."
The king and his counselors had hoped to subdue the Israelites
with hard labor, decrease their numbers, and crush their independent
spirit. Orders were now issued to the women whose jobs gave them
opportunity, to destroy the male Hebrew children at their birth.
Satan knew that a deliverer was to come from among the Israelites,
and by leading the king to destroy their children he hoped to defeat
the divine plan. But the women feared God and did not dare to carry
out the cruel command.
The king, angry at the failure of his plot, made the orders more
urgent and extensive. "Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying,
'Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every
daughter you shall save alive.'"
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